In unprecedented numbers, healthcare facilities are adopting innovative new approaches to delivering care and minimizing adverse events. As a result, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is expanding the focus of the 2006 100,000 Lives campaign from preventing avoidable mortality to Protecting 5 Million Lives from Harm.

Shands HealthCare has joined IHI and the nation in participating in this campaign.

The aim of the 5 Million Lives campaign is to support the improvement of medical care in the US in order to reduce harm, such as adverse drug events and surgical complications.

All Shands facilities were actively involved in the initial campaign and applied interventions that were appropriate to their unique patient populations.

As we move forward in the Protecting 5 Million Lives from Harm campaign, new initiatives will be adopted that focus on ways to significantly reduce the number of unintended injuries resulting from healthcare that requires additional monitoring, treatment or extended hospitalization. Shands HealthCare plans to continue to focus on the following interventions as part of our organizational commitment to protect the safety of the patients we serve:

• Prevent Pressure Ulcers by using structured care protocols to prevent them.
• Reduce Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus infection by reliably implementing scientifically proven infection control practices.
• Prevent Harm from High-Alert Medications starting with a focus on anticoagulants, sedatives, narcotics, and insulin.
• Reduce Surgical Complications by reliably implementing all of the changes in care recommended by SCIP, the national Surgical Care Improvement Project.
• Deliver Reliable, Evidence-Based Care for Congestive Heart Failure to avoid readmissions.
• Get boards (board of directors) on board so that they can become more effective in accelerating organizational progress toward safe care.